The Capture
by The Mad Chatter
Summary: Whatever happened to Belle after she left Rumpelstiltskin's castle? How did she end up in the Queen's custody? Here's one idea. One-shot.


_I Own Nothing. This is a little one-shot on what may have happened to Belle that ended with her being a prisoner of Regina. First post to so be gentle. :-) (actually, first post period so please be gentle). Thanks!_

She cried and cried. They were horrible, gut-wrenching sobs that came from a place she didn't even know she had. Cries that seemed like they were torn from her by some other being. And - she supposed - in a way they were. After all, it's not every day your True Love is torn from you just as you finally find one another. Once everything seems like it will be Happily Ever After after all. Well, maybe not happy ever after, but at least Content For The Foreseeable Future. And then she had to go and get herself nabbed.

Belle had left the Dark Castle in what could only be described as a huff after she had been sent away from Rumpelstiltskin,'s dungeons. She walked away with her head held high and not a tear to be seen. (She had gotten all of that out of the way those first confusing hours after he had shaken her - yelled at her - frightened her for the first time). When he finally came to her and told her to leave she was certain of only a few things. She was certain that she was very angry with him. And she was certain that he loved her just as deeply and madly and incongruously as she loved him. She was also certain that he was in terrified of the feelings that pulsed and settled around the two of them like a heavy blanket of static electricity and warmth. These convictions were all but proven when he sent her away. While the man was devious and evasive to a fault, he was and always would be a terrible outright liar. She gave him a piece of her mind and marched out of the Dark Castle like it was her own, planning by the time she hit the front wall to visit Papa and her old stomping grounds for some time, then return home - for this was what this dark and forlorn looking estate had become - to his undoubtedly remorseful company.

After several nights on the road the homesickness had started. Belle missed her room. She missed her bed. She missed the familiar books and knick knacks and the way the hair on the back of her neck stood up when she walked back a particularly magical area or item in the castle. But mostly she missed him - Rumpelstiltskin,. Her master, her friend, her true love. He missed his strange wit and odd smile. She missed his complete incompetence when trying to understand her. She even missed his slightly unpredictable tempers. Three ales into an evening at a local tavern, sitting in front of a fire and staring into the middle-distance with unseeing eyes, she heard a dwarf talking about love. Before she knew what she was doing, she was talking the dreamy-eyed thing into running off after his girl. It took less than a minute to come to her own decision to return to the Dark Castle herself. Theoretically evil or not, nothing felt more like home in her mind's eye than that absurdly pink sitting room with the smell of a fire in the fireplace and the sound of a spinner's wheel creaking, creaking in its constant motion. She finished her drink, purchased a room, and settled in for the night. She was suddenly filled with a delight and relief at her decision. A weight she didn't know she had been carrying was lifted from her chest as she anticipated returning to her home. Her heart. She would make him believe she loved him without expectation if she had to work as his caretaker for a century. After all, that had been the deal in the first place. Just before blowing out her candle for the night she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She turned to look at herself before looking her reflection straight in the eye. "No matter if he does keep his magic, we'll be together," she said matter-of-factly to herself. Hearing it aloud brought a grin to her face. "We'll be together and we will be happy."

That little pep talk in the mirror had been her undoing.

Oh, if only she had paid more attention that night after they had kissed. If only she had fought through the confusion and used her brain! At first she had thought him mad to have immediately whipped the heavy curtain off of the mirror in the foyer and started shouting. She had been frightened, giddy, confused, and far too off-balance to understand what was transpiring. The Queen! "The Queen," he had said. "Your friend, the Queen!" Speaking through mirrors and curses that didn't want breaking - she had been so out of her depth that none of it had made any sense. None of it, at least, until she had been overtaken on the road back to the Dark Castle by the same black carriage she had seen once before. Hands that had rested on her shoulder in confidence on previous a previous occasion grabbed at her with decidedly less friendly intent this time while bright red lips curled into a smile that was decidedly more sinister than kind. Rooted to her seat across from the woman she now knew was no friend, she managed to get her mouth to obey her. "Why?" she gritted through a clenched jaw. Everything felt as though she was moving through molasses as magic that smelled like burning pine kept her locked in place. The Queen had looked at her sideways with a smirk Belle knew immediately she would come to despise.

"Well, you couldn't serve your purpose in neutering the beast," she said with a sharpness to her tone, "but at least I know now that I have something he wants. And when he finds out you're dead - that you're dead because of HIM..."

Belle was not a violent woman, but had she control of her hands at that moment she would have smacked the look of pure sadistic pleasure off of the Queen's face then and there. As it was such a strong impulse flooded her that her arm twitched all the way up to her shoulder. While it wasn't quite as satisfying, it did bring a slight crinkle or worry to the woman in black's forehead.

"Everyone has a weakness, dear girl. You appear to be the only chink I have found in the otherwise unflappable Rumpelstiltskin,'s armor. And WHAT a weakness! Do you really think I would just let you go back to him? Let you both be... happy?" Her face had turned up into a sneer as she finished her question. No response was needed as the Queen turned to look out the window the the moving carriage. "No. There will be no happiness as long as I have any say in the matter." Her voice was low and for a moment Belle wondered if she was still being addressed or if the Queen was starting to mutter to herself. But then she had no more time to think on it as the gravity of her situation finally descended upon her in earnest. She was a captive. No person knew where she was, or if she was alive. She was lost and nobody - not even her Rumpelstiltskin, - would be able to find her.

And now here she was - living in a cell in the Queen's dungeon. She had called for her Papa and for Rumpelstiltskin, for mercy and for help. Then she called out to no one and had started to cry. She cried for herself and for the loss of her home and her heart but eventually - and what prompted her hardest sobs - were the thoughts of what her poor Rumpelstiltskin would be told. What horrible lies would this Evil Queen spin for her lovely spinner? She had lost him, yes, and lost her freedom but at least she had hope. He would be told she was dead, dead because of him, and he would believe it. She had seen it in his eyes when she had confessed her love to him. He truly saw himself as the beast of the stories, and he would not second guess a lie that cast him in the worst light. He would be broken forever and it was her fault. If only she had stopped to think, if only she had been clever, if only she had considered the consequences of breaking the curse, if only she had listened when he spouted what she considered endearingly paranoid theories about his enemies. The self-recrimination coupled with the crippling thought that she would never see him again spawned deep sobs from parts of her she hadn't even known existed. She didn't know how many days she sat huddled in a heap but eventually the days blended together until she didn't know how long she had been in this small little room.

Then, one day, she stopped crying. She wasn't sure why but a new resolve steeled its way through her body. Hope that had been pushed down for so long was finally allowed to glimmer and she felt herself start to smile for the first time in a very long time. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she was certain there had been a change somewhere. Had she not been imprisoned in a dark dungeon, she may have dismissed the slight change in the air of the castle as her imagination, but she was suddenly certain - something had happened. While she could never be sure exactly what the change had been, suddenly the darkness of her cell was not as oppressive, her loneliness slightly less stifling. Things had been set in motion which would bring her back to him She knew it, and she smiled.

Somewhere far away, in a dungeon not terribly different from the one Belle was currently entrenched, Snow White turned to face the beast. "Emma," she said. "Her name is Emma."


End file.
